Process and apparatus for charging cookers



lFully 22 1924. LSOZS o. SHEPPARD. JR., ET AL PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR CHARGING COVOKERS Filed Marchv 28. 1921 2 sneensfsneen l I o fw J p/z wat@ 4 #gaffe f O. SHEPPARD, JR., ET AL PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR CHARGING COOKERS Filed March 28 i921 2 Shams-Sheen 2 Patented dugg, 1924i ORLANDO SHEPPARD, OF ATLANTA, GEORGIA, AND 4"REU'ilSCElLL iA. TRAUE, OF DAYTON, 'OI-HO, ASSIGNOIB-S "TO BUCKEYE RON'KL BRASS WORKS, OF DAYTON',

OHIO, iA CORPORATON OF OHIO.

'rnocnss Ann arrasar-Us ronlcimnerne'Comines.

Application filed March'ZS, 1921. 4Serial No. .456/154.

To` all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that we, ORLANDO SHEPPARD,

Jr., and RUssELL A..TRACE, citizenso the United States, Aresiding, respectively, at Atlanta, in the county ot Fulton andv State or Georgia, and -at Dayton, in the county of Montgomery and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements iny Processes :and Apparatus for Charging Cookers, of which the Vfollowing isalspeciication, reference being had therein tothe Yaccompanying drawing. v

Our invention-'relates .to a method land 4apparatus utilized -in the fcookingof i cot-ton vseed'meal and' inparticular to apparatusfor effecting the proper handling:andpassager ol oil-bearing material throughthe cooker to theformer andpresses. 1 Y

The'object otour invention is to provide some means of informing the press crew of the time whenthey should start emptying thepresses of oil bearing cake or cake that has contained oil vwhich haslbeen expressed therefrom and the time "for reloading the presses by charging the former from the lowermost kettle. and takingl the cakes .from

vtherformer to the presses.

.It vwill be understood that in oil mills there is a layout of machinery, as will be vseen in Figure 4, consisting of machinery orsupplyingl proper oil bearing material to the cooker, a cooker, a former, and a .plurality ofpresses. YThefwhole mechanism is worked on a schedule depending yuponithe amount of time it takes for a charge. of meal to be properly cooked so that it can be delivered to the .former This schedule .is usually arranged in. cyclesy o/twentyy vminutes each. (It has ybeen very diflicult/heretofore to secure auniform adherence to the schedule where dependence was Vplaced upon V.a clock. or upon the adjustment of the mechanism itself. vThe exact time is not essentialsave that the machinery runs cycles of appr/oximately a--predeterminedperiod, butthe difficulty 'has been linkeeping the timingin roperating theinachinery in accordance with the time schedule followedona clock be,- cause the machinery would get out ottime with: theclock andV thus upset the schedule.Y

Byour invention we'are enabled to 4work the machinery onthelproper ,cycles andfgive notice of thetime of operating it whenthe machineryV has actually .performed its cycle ofvfunctions so that'rif the machinentakes a fewseconds more at some time than at others it will'not upset -av.pre-arranged schedule.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1,v isa side elevation ofa plurality of kettles'of ja cooker ywith operative mechanism for opening and closing the several rgates afor;charging Aand discharging the oil bearing materials from the kettlesytogether with the alarm.: mechanism;

Fig. 2,?-is a' section of the :alarm Fig. 3, isa cdetail viewv of the alarm and `the A operatingmechanism therefor and,

Fig. l, is a plan viewof the machinery as .laide out in an oil vvmill where myfmethod is practiced. i A Y Describing the particularparts inthese drawings, 1, I2, and 3 are kettles superimposed above one another, the'lowermost kettle communicating `with former l. 4These kettles are provided with doors 5 pivoted at (lon a shaft 7-an,d carriedthereby. These doors engage with a'trapjS to seal the'hottom of the'cookerto prevent the exit of meal. The arm 9 is connected with 'a cross yshaft The arm 9 hasa-weight 10 .upon the end-thereotto maintain the gate 5 inits closedposition.V A trip arm k11 4is pivotedto the cookerv at12,thefunction of which will loe-explained hereinafter.A n' n n The cooker isoperated through a flexible chain or 7somefdesired flexible member or a idrivinginember 13 which lis actuatedby a kdrive wheel lil/and as rocket 15 carried on theshaftl j'ournalec injthe Lsupport 17. -:'lihisttlexi'blelmember is guided'ibya :guard 18 to .some eXtent,the j'guard also performing the function of preventingV injury to `the operator. AluglQ is carried by thechain 13 which comes in contact with the cam-surtaces20a'fiired tothe shaft '7. yThis lug 19 also comes in contact with the arm 21 on which', is mounteda weight 22 that actuates the. gear segment 23 to ring the alarm bell 2e.

The.alarm'bellitself, as willbe `seen in Figure 2,consists of the bell 211 that has a lug cast on the'in'terior thereof at 25. It is retained on the cooker by. a' bolt-26. Upon thisbolt- 26 is mounted/loosely a gear mem-- her 27 thatuneshes with thegear segment `23thatissupported on the lever 21 pivoted Y at 28 to the cooker'l. lThus 27 and 23 mesh with one another so that 23 will rotate 27 011926. 27 lisprojected outwardly and laterally to form an internal .gear y.29 which meshes with `a/,pini'on`30 carried on a plate llO 31 which travels inside of the bell 24. This plate 31 has mounted loosely upon it the centrifugally operated members 32. These members are retained on the plate by the studs 33 and cap plates 34.

When 23 rotates 2'? it consequently rotates 32 thus 'imparting motion through 30 to the plate 31 so that centrifugal force of the rotation of 31 will throw outwardly the centrifugally operated members 32 which will strike against the lug25 on the interior of the bell and thus ring the bell.

The actuation of 23 is secured as follows: As the lug 19 passes around on the chain 13 it comes in contact with the end 21 of the arm that carries the weight 22 thus lifting it slowly as ithe chain usually makes a complete cycle in about twenty minutes. When the lug 19 passes by the arm 21 it is allowed to drop suddenly by reason of the weight 22 pulling it downwardly. This actuates the gear 23 around the pivotal point 28.

The lug 19 travels upwardly, the bottom cooker being emptied this time, and comes in contact with the cam member 20 thus elevating the arm 9, the weight 10, and opening the door 5 allowing the meal from the kettle 2 to drop into kettle 1 to fill it. This movement throws the arm 9 and the weight 10 into the dotted line position against the trip armr 11 so that the door remains in open position. As the trip moves upwardly it comes in contact with the upper end of 11 and moves it to the right hand about the pivot 12 thus'throwing the weight 10 and armv 9 `back into their original closed position, closing the gate 5, the arm 9 coming into contact with the spring buer 35.

Referring to Figure 4, mealis supplied to the trough 36 thence through the trough 37 to the trough 38 into the overhead feed trough 39 whence it goes into the topmost cooker 40 and descends as described to the lowermost kettle 1 where it is drawn out into the former 4 by the press crew and thence delivered by the press crew to the presses 41 in the form of cakes.

The press crew start to unload the presses 41 when the bell rings during` which time the lowermost kettle is being filled from kettle No. 2. By the time they ihave taken out a portion of the cakes the former is ready to be started and filled from the lowermost kettle of the cooker, which has now been filled. They, therefore, form the cakes and fill the presses while the meal is being shifted in the kettles above No. 1. They7 then wait until the alarm rings the second time when they start the operation over again. y f

While we have shown and described certain features as constituting our invention, it will be understood that parts khave been shown for purposes of illustration only, and

that we do not desire to be limited to such details, as obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a cooker, means for cooking oil bearing material, means for loading and unloading said cooker, an alarm and means actuated by said loading and unloading means for operating said alarm at predetermined intervals of time of its operation to indicate the unloading of the cooker.

2. In a cooker, a plurality of kettles, a pluralitykof means for opening and closing the kettles for the discharge of oil bearing material from one kettle to another, mechanism for actuating said discharging means successively, and an alarm for indicating the state of the apparatus, and means carried by said actuating means for operating said alarm upon completion of each cycle of operation of said actuating mechanism.

3. In combination, a plurality of kettles superimposed above one another, gates for said kettles attached to each of said kettles to permit of the discharge of oil bearing material from one kettle to another, means normally urging said gates to closed position, a traveling member to open said gates at predetermined intervals, and an alarm positioned to be actuated by said traveling member upon completion of each cycle of operation of said traveling member.

4. In combination, a plurality of kettles superimposed above one another, gates for said kettles attached to each of said kettles to permit of the discharge of oil bearing material from one kettle to another, means to keep said gates normally closed, means to successively open said gates, at predetermined intervals of time,yand a pivoted trip arm actuated by said opening means to move said gates to closed kposition after a predetermined interval oftime.

5. In combination, a plurality of kettles superimposed above one another, an endless chain traveling adjacent thereto, means of driving said chain, an actuating lug carried by said chain and traveling therewith, an

arm pivoted to the lowermost kettle having a weight thereon at one end and a gear segment at the other end, a bell adapted to be actuated by said gear segment, said arm adaptedto be actuated by said lug on the chain.

6. In combination, a plurality of kettles superimposed above one another, an endless chain traveling adjacent thereto, means of driving said chain, an actuating lug carried by s aid chain and traveling therewith, an arm pivoted to the lowermost kettle having 4a weight thereon at one end and a kgear segment at the other end, a bell adapted to be actuated by said gear segment, said arm adapted to be actuated by said lug on the chain, gates in said kettles normally closed, means for maintaining said gates in their closed position, means thereon to be actuated by said lug by the chain for opening said gates, and means to be actuated by said lugs for closing said gates.

7. In a method of operating a cotton seed oil mill, preparing the oil bearing material, conveying the oil bearing material to a cooker, transferring the oil bearing material by operation of mechanism connected with the cooker to successive kettles in said cooker, and sounding through the operation of the mechanism an alarm at the end of a certain definite period to notify the press crew to operate a former and the presses.

8. In a method of operating a cotton seed oil mill, preparing' the oil bearing material, conveying the oil bearing material to a cooker, transferring the oil bearing material by continuous operation of mechanism connected with the cooker to successive kettles in said cooker, sounding through the operation of said mechanism an alarm at the end of acertain definite period to notify the press crew to operate a former and the presses, op erating a former and operating the presses by withdrawing cakes that have been pressed and inserting unpressed cakes from the former.

In testimony whereof, we aiiX our signatures.

l ORLANDO SHEPPARD, JR.

RUSSELL A. TRACE. 

